Trina's page of Blogginess

Thursday, July 30, 2009

Aphid Attack!!!

It should come to no surprise to anyone that I'm not a huge fan of "nature".

...and when I say "nature", I mean all the little bugs, spiders, and creepy crawly things that I associate with being outside amongst the pretty part of nature like trees, plants and flowers.

When Dick and I had our new backyard garden designed last year, we specifically requested that it be low maintenance. I figured, if we planned it out right, we could have a backyard that wouldn't require much more maintenance than regular weeding and simple pruning. After spending so much dough on our yard, I was determined to take care of the week-to-week needs, and only have our gardener come in for big jobs like pruning the trees, things associated with the drip irrigation system, or anything else that required actual knowledge of how things work out there. :)

So far, I've been doing a pretty good job, if I do say so myself! :)My parents came over early on and helped disperse 20+ bags of mulch, and also helped me transplant a couple of plants.

I'm usually out there about once a week, working on the day-to-day maintenance. This mostly involves weeding, which, if I do it once a week, is pretty easy to keep under control. I've also busted out my pruning shears from time-to-time to trim away old growth, and have even taken a stab at shaping a few plants.

it was all going so well....

...except for the aphids.

I noticed the aphids a few months ago, and bought some spray that I thought would help. Well, it turns out that I wasn't spraying often enough.

Yesterday, my contractor who built the garden came over to see how everything had grown since she saw it last. She immediately noticed the aphid infestation on the plants underneath one of the maple trees. I told her I had been spraying, but she told me that wasn't enough.

She suggested that I take a bucket of soapy water, arm myself with a pair of rubber gloves, and wipe each leaf individually with the soapy water. She said it would be much more effective than spraying alone, which makes sense.

My initial reaction: Ewwwwww!!!I hate bugs! There's no way I'll do this.Then I sent out an email to my gardener, asking her to come over sometime soon to tackle it.

...which should be the end of the story.

But, it's not.

This afternoon, out of the blue, I decided to put on my rubber gloves, and attach those aphids myself!

I filled a bucket with soapy water, and wiped those leaves, one by one, scraping off all of the aphids, and drowning them in my bucket of water. I emptied the bucket out 4 or 5 times. That's a lot of aphids.

It probably took me about 45 minutes to complete the task. All the while, I managed to stay composed and not get too grossed out, knowing that would get me nowhere. After I rinsed out my bucket for the final time, I went back to the plants and sprayed them with the solution to try to keep them away. I now know that I should spray at least once a week - much more than I had been.

After I finished the job outside, I came in, put my clothes into the washing machine, then hopped into the shower.

This gives you an idea of just how miraculous it is that I even talked myself into doing this chore in the first place.

The Walt Disney Family Museum

I'm the first to admit that I'm a big geek when it comes to seeing any archived Disney production art. Most of my knowledge of it comes from when I used to work at the vintage animation gallery, and also from when I was an animation student. My fascination of it goes much further though - I've loved looking at it since I was a young kid. Always thought it was some of the most beautiful and "alive" art I'd ever seen. I also love seeing any old photos of footage of the early days of Disney - whether it be the man, the park, or old films.

I remembering hearing about this sometime ago, but I had no idea how far along it had gotten, or when it was planning on opening.

Richard Cheese & Lounge Against the Machine

Sing that Funky Music, White Boy!

This afternoon, quite out of the blue, Dick started to rap....

ProtectionFor Gangs, ClubsAnd NationsCausing Grief InHuman RelationsIt's A Turf WarOn A Global ScaleI'd Rather Hear Both SidesOf The TaleSee, It's Not About RacesJust PlacesFacesWhere Your BloodComes FromIs Where Your Space IsI've Seen The BrightGet DullerI'm Not Going To SpendMy Life Being A Color

The day I got a really good "Andy Bounce"

We play golf regularly with our friend, Andy.

Andy is a very good golfer, but he also manages to get quite lucky. Andy has been known to hit a ball, and have it bounce off the ground, a tree, a pole... whatever, and not only bounce back onto the fairway, but also have it end up closer to the pin than he would have if it hadn't it anything at all.

This is known as "The Andy Bounce".

When a ball has an unfortunate bounce which bounces away from the fairway, or puts you further behind than you would otherwise be, is referred to a "Bad Bounce".

Typically, I'll catch a bad bounce.

But today, on hole 6 of Fleming, I caught a really great Andy Bounce off my tee shot.

I hit the ball with my driver, so it went pretty far, but slightly to the right.Not only did it bounce off a tree, but it also bounced on the sidewalk, which catapulted my ball further forward, and in the center of the fairway! I was probably only about 20-30 yards from the green. (the pin was roughly 170 yards away)

So, this was a great start. Lucky, but great for me, nonetheless. :)

I chipped the ball onto the green, then had a really nice putt into the hole.It was the first time that I made par on this hole, so I was pretty excited.

The Grand Lake Theater

Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince

Whoo Hoo!!Here we are at the Grand Lake Theater in Oakland!

We've been coming here for years to see all the Harry Potter and Star Wars films. It's such a great experience: gorgeous, restored theater, $6.50 matinee, no lines (can you see that my Mom is the first in line?) and FREE popcorn!! Yay!

The show starts at Noon. We got here at 10:30. No one else was in line yet, and the doors don't open 'till 11:45. :)

Saturday, July 04, 2009

Happy 4th of July!!

Friday, July 03, 2009

Mykail and the IKEA art

He came in Thursday, spent the day with my parents, then took BART to SF this morning. We met in Union Square, had a big breakfast/lunch at Lori's Diner downtown, then took MUNI home.

There wasn't anything in particular that Mykail wanted to do in SF, so we opted for just hanging out at home. We were in the backyard, when I remembered that I had the perfect project for the two of us to do together:

Just a couple of weeks ago, I had gone to IKEA and bought these very cool self-adhesive wall decorations that I wanted to use in my cabana. The designs come in cut-out pieces, on four sheets, like stickers, only they don't stick permanently. They have designs that they suggest, or you can just get creative and make your own. It's a bit of an intimidating process, and I was waiting to get some opinions before getting started. Mykail, who is one of the most creative people I know, was the perfect person to create my wall art with me!

We spent about 4 hours working on the project together. We started by using one of the design samples, but eventually branched out (no pun intended!) and improvised, and created our own.

I'm super happy with how it turned out! I think it's just soooo cute!

I chose this design because I loved the idea of having a tree inside my cabana, bringing the outside into the inside. :) You can see that I also did that with the chair that I chose for the space as well.

Here's a photo of the completed project:

...and here's another one with Mykail!

Thanks, Misha Mouse! I couldn't have done it without you, and I love that you have a permanent presence in my cabana. :)

Thursday, July 02, 2009

Bloody Marys, Camera Obscura, and Ocean Beach

This afternoon, I met my old friend, Lee, for a drink at the Cliff House. Lee and I go all the way back to 6th grade together! We reconnected a few months ago through the wonders of Facebook. We both live in San Francisco, and saw each other for the first time in over 20 years in April.

We had a nice visit today, catching up over Bloody Marys (well, a Virgin Mary for me, since I was driving, and I'm such a lightweight!). The Cliff House makes my favorite. Yum.

After we finished our drinks, we decided to go down to check out the Camera Obscura.

from wikipediaThe camera obscura (Latin veiled chamber) is an optical device used, for example, in drawing or for entertainment. It is one of the inventions leading to photography. The principle can be demonstrated with a box with a hole in one side (the box may be room-sized, or hangar sized). Light from a scene passes through the hole and strikes a surface where it is reproduced, in color, and upside-down. The image's perspective is accurate. The image can be projected onto paper, which when traced can produce a highly accurate representation.

Using mirrors, as in the 18th century overhead version (illustrated in the Discovery and Origins section below), it is possible to project a right-side-up image. Another more portable type is a box with an angled mirror projecting onto tracing paper placed on the glass top, the image upright as viewed from the back.

As a pinhole is made smaller, the image gets sharper, but the projected image becomes dimmer. With too small a pinhole the sharpness again becomes worse due to diffraction. Some practical camera obscurae use a lens rather than a pinhole because it allows a larger aperture, giving a usable brightness while maintaining focus.

I love the Camera Obscura, or the Giant Camera, as this one is called. The image is gorgeous, and totally memorizing. Lee and I stayed in there for a long time, staring at the image, and taking photos. (I'm sure he got some great ones. I only had my iPhone with me.)

Lee, taking photos of the image projected onto the screen

After we left the Cliff House area, we walked along Ocean Beach over the Beach Chalet, and the adjacent Park Chalet. I still can't believe I've never been to the Park Chalet! (my bad, Lee - next time!)

Ocean Beach

I had a really nice afternoon, catching up with an old friend. Thanks, Lee! I look forward to our next outing!

Happy Birthday, Mom!!

Today is my Mom's Birthday!! Happy Birthday, Mom!! To celebrate, I came down to Milpitas to take her out to lunch.

First stop before Milpitas: Baker's Square in San Bruno. My Mom's favorite pie is Baker's Square's Hawaiian Pineapple. It's only available during strawberry season. The Baker's Square in Milpitas closed a couple if years ago, so my Mom doesn't get to enjoy the pie as often as she used to.

Hawaiian Strawberry Pie

Happy Barb with her Surprise Birthday Pie

For lunch, we went to House of Genji, in San Jose. It's one of my Mom's favorites - it's very similar to Benihana.

My Dad will be taking my Mom out to dinner tonight, so she'll have a full day of celebrating.